Italy wins Coin of the Year
Italy has won the 2017 Coin of the Year Award. It will be given the trophy Feb. 4 at the World Money Fair in Berlin. An international panel of judges…
Italy has won the 2017 Coin of the Year Award.
It will be given the trophy Feb. 4 at the World Money Fair in Berlin.
An international panel of judges selected the country’s silver 10 euro issued to mark 70 Years of Peace in Europe.
This coin and all coins in the competition are dated 2015.
The 10 euro also will claim the title of Most Artistic Coin in the annual COTY competition sponsored by World Coin News, the World Money Fair and the Journal of East Asian Numismatics.
“Most Artistic Coin” is one of 10 categories in which coins compete for the top honor.
Winners of the 10 categories were announced in the Jan. 3 issue of Numismatic News and the January issue of World Coin News. Trophies for all 10 will also be given Feb. 4.
It was from this field of 10 first-round winners that a second round of judging occurred to determine the Coin of the Year.
Finland and the United States were the top winners in the first round of judging.
Each nation won two of the 10 categories.
Finland had the Best Bi-Metallic Coin, a 5-euro piece depicting Lapland reindeer.
It also won in the Best Silver Coin category with a 10 euro marking the 70th anniversary of peace after World War II.
The United States claimed the Best Circulating Coin title with an America the Beautiful quarter honoring the Kisatchie National Forest.
It also topped the voting for Most Inspirational Coin with the March of Dimes silver dollar honoring the 60th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine.
Japan took the Best Contemporary Event Coin title for its gold 10,000 yen marking the Great East Japan Earthquake Reconstruction.
A contemporary event is an historical event that has occurred less than 100 years ago.
Canada claimed the Most Historically Significant coin with a $20 silver piece marking the 100th anniversary of “In Flanders Fields,” a poem by John McCrae about the human loss on the Western Front during World War I.
The Most Historically Significant coin category is for themes that date back 100 years or more.
Best Crown honors were won by Great Britain for its copper-nickel 5-pound coin for the 50th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s death.
Austria took Best Gold Coin honors for its 100 euro Capercaille, a bird native to the country.
The Cook Islands had the Most Innovative Coin, a silver $2 that represents the space-time continuum with a black-hole shaped coin with magnetic sphere.
Created in 1984, the COTY Award has been given by World Coin News to recognize the best of the coiner’s art and to encourage world mints to continue to challenge themselves in creating these great numismatic works.
World Coin News is a monthly periodical dedicated to collecting international coinage and is a sister publication to Numismatic News.
This article was originally printed in Numismatic News. >> Subscribe today.
More Collecting Resources
• Check out the newly-updated Standard Catalog of World Coins, 2001-Date that provides accurate identification, listing and pricing information for the latest coin releases.
• Are you a U.S. coin collector? Check out the 2017 U.S. Coin Digest for the most recent coin prices.
